Concent of Saunt Edhar

The Concent of Saunt Edhar is a concent located north of the fiftieth parallel on Arbre. Formed in A.R. 297 by Saunt Edhar, the concent contains unarian, decenarian, centenarian and millenarian maths. During the Third Sack, the millenarian math of the Concent of Saunt Edhar was one of the three inviolates, viz., one of the three maths on all of Arbre not to be overrun by saecular raiders. Its avout are collectively referred to as Edharian, through only about a third a members of the Edharian order.

The Concent of Saunt Edhar includes the Edharian, New Circle, and Reformed Old Faanian orders. The Edharian order is a Protan-Halikaarnian order that posits the existence of the Hylaean Theoric World; in the debate between semantic and syntactic, they fall firmly on the semantic side: words mean things, and ideas can be shared across cultures. Most Edharians remain theors; almost none are hierarchs. When first founded, Saunt Edhar's was populated only by members of the Edharian order; after the Third Sack, the Edharians were dispersed to various concents, and other orders were brought in to "balance" the concent. Members of the Edharian order tend to specialize in cosmography, and there is a vast starhenge to accommodate their studies.

The other orders at Saunt Edhar's are the New Circle and the Reformed Old Faanians. The original Circle was founded by Saunt (Fraa) Proc; they are by no means Deolaters, but they also tend to believe that the HTW is more a religious belief than actual fact. They fall on the syntactic side of the debate: words and symbols mean nothing except what an individual believes they mean; therefore, there can be no rational communication with aliens (or unknown cultures) until there is mutual agreement on the meaning of symbols. Saunt Edhar's draws the majority of its hierarchs from the New Circle. Hierarchs are, unlike theors, closely supervised, which is the "price they pay for their power." Suur Trestanas, the Warden Regulant, is New Circle; presumably, so are her assistant, Spelikon, and her opposite number, Warden Fendant Fraa Delrakhones. The Wardens are not necessarily in agreement with one another; the one conversation we see between Delrakhones and Trestanas is an argument, and Fraa Lio, who joins the New Circle at Eliger at receives and internship from Delrakhones, refers to the Regulant Court as "enemy territory." Wardens Fendant guard the concent from attack by Saeculars; Wardens Regulant are a branch of the Inquisition, and assign penalties to misbehaving avout, which can be anything from weeding to cleaning latrines to being Thrown Back. The FAE, or First Among Equals, of the New Circle is Fraa Corlandin.

The Reformed Old Faanians, begun by Saunt (Suur) Faan falls philosophically between the order of Saunt Edhar and the New Circle; its members tend to have varying beliefs. According to Arsibalt, who joins the ROF at Eliger, "some even believe in God," which is radical for avout. Faanians more or less adhere to Evendrivician beliefs, which is a combination of theorics and metatheorics. While the New Circle may have been put in St. Edhar's to "keep an eye" on the Edharians, as Inquisitor Varax suggests, the presence of the Reformed Old Faanians probably represents an attempt to keep the peace between the Edharians and the Procians. If nothing else, it may have been an attempt to save the order, which is the second incarnation of Saunt Faan's order (Reformed in this case meaning 're-formed,' or regrouped, rather than a philosophical reformation) and which "has been a dying order since the day it was founded," according to Erasmus. No one expects the ROF to get many members at Eliger, and Arsibalt predicts that those who do will be "floor sweepings." Erasmus is shocked when Arsibalt himself joins the ROF at Eliger, among half a dozen other members. Suur Tulia points out that Arsibalt's decision is political; because of the ROF's small numbers, Arsibalt "can become important right away..." She goes on to predict that Arsibalt can one day become FAE of the ROF, perhaps even Primate, a prediction which appears to have come true at Saunt Orolo's at the end of the book. At Saunt Edhar's, the FAE of the ROF is Suur Frandling, whose presentation at the Tenth Night celebration is so dull that "she could have been reading from an economic database."

At the beginning of Anathem, the Concent of Saunt Edhar is the home of our narrator, Fraa Erasmas.

Estemard: One of Orolo's two teachers when he was younger. Got fed up and walked out Day Gate. Settled on Bly's Butte; apparently married and fathered children. His avocation was tiler; he retiled the New Laundry. May have been, and is probably still trying, to solve the Teglon. Arsibalt posits that Estemard left before being Thrown Back.

Grandfraa Mentaxenes: Extremely old; sets the rosin tray for the Provener team to step into; opens the chancel door during Vocos and, presumably, Orolo's Anathem. Impatient, especially in the food line at the Refectory. Was delighted to accept the challenge of translating Fraa Bolo's instructions on table-opening during the setup for Tenth Night. Decenarian; order unknown.

Grandsuur Tamura: Gives lecture to fids on the Iconogaphies prior to Apert. Welcomed Tulia from the Uniarian labyrinth and gave her a bowl of soup. Decenarian; order unknown.

Grandsuur Ylma: Greeted by extramuros woman at beginning of Apert. Teaches Barb orbital mechanics using Saunt Lesper's coordinates. Friend and boating-partner of Grandsuur Tamura. Decenarian; order unknown, but likely Edharian, given her specialization in cosmography.

Suur Randa: Beekeeper. On the 10th day of Apert discovers the theft of mead at the apiary shed. Math and order unknown.

Fraa Holbane: Decenarian math; shares a cell one night with Erasmus and Arsibalt. Unknown to which order he made Eliger.

Unlike the other maths at Saunt Edhar's the Millenarian math is comprised only of Edharians. Since they have contact with the Saecular world only once every 1,000, the re-ordering of their math along the lines of the others would presumably have violated their Discipline.

"Ita" is an abbreviation. "I" is short for "Information," "T" for "Technology;" there is no general agreement for what the "A" stands for, although it is likely a Saecular bulshytt term. Ita have regular interactions with the Saecular world, both by means of the Reticulum (which they upkeep) and entry into the Saecular world as needed. They keep separate from avout - in fact, are forbidden to interact with avout, just as avout are forbidden to interact with them. Ita are considered "too Saecular" to interact with avout, but are necessary to running concents; they maintain most if not all of the syntactic devices, including the clock and the telescopes. At Saunt Edhar's, the Ita are relegated to the northwest nave and what Erasmus calls a "slum" below the clock. Many avout believe that the Ita are sneaky and untrustworthy, and report to the hierarchs on the activities of the avout. Ita, on the other hand, regard themselves as "family-oriented." The do not eat the same food as avout, and their food does not contain the element(s) that make males sterile, so that they can marry and raise families. Sammann at one point tells Erasmus that he has had "several girlfriends," but no one as important to him as Lise was to Jules Verne Durand.

Saunt Amnectrus - order uncertain, but likely New Circle, as he was Warden Fendant when the Third Sack opened. It was probably he who gave approval for the Decenarians and Centenarians to break Discipline and join with the Unarians, as their part of the concent was the most defensible. He probably also organized, and possibly led, the "flying wedge" attack by avout into the Saecular camps, raiding for provisions and then returning. If so, he is one of the 100 who survived the attack (200 died in the raid, and another 200 died from their wounds upon returning to the concent; these 200 are buried beneath a wedge-shaped tumulus in the most public-accessible part of the concent). Even if he did not participate in the raid itself, Amnectrus died defending the concent. His sarcophagus, which is located in the Warden Fendant's court, is a large block topped by a life-size statue of him "in the pose in which he spent the last twenty hours of his life": kneeling holding a rifle. The rifle, and the bullet casings spread along the sarcophagus, are genuine relics. The Flying Wedge is a traditional military formation, which suggests that someone in the Fendant court devised the plan, as is the fact that the avout "surprised" the Saeculars by returning to the concent rather than fleeing. The concent fell to the Saeculars the day after the flying wedge raid - after the provisions they acquired had been delivered to the Millenarians - so it is plausible that Amnectrus not only planned but also led the raid, returned, and lived to defend the concent for another twenty hours, until its fall.

Saunt Bly - Edharian; cosmographer; Thrown Back before eventually become a Saunt. Made his home one what is now called Bly's Butte, where he convinced the local slines to stop eating blithe (Allswell), one of the Eleven, which provides an overall feeling of happiness, or at least numbness. The slines "turned surly and ate his liver," which was where they thought was the seat of his intelligence. The name of the remote town of Samble may be a contraction of "Saunt Bly."

Fraa Bolo - managed to set up a complicated table in the year 940, and left nearly incomprehensible directions to repeating his triumph. Erasmus and Arsibalt give up on the task, but it is gladly taken up by Fraa Mentaxenes.

Fraa Shuf - stonemason; planned to build a tower for avout to meditate, left the work to his fid, who left the work to his fid; eventual result is Shuf's Dowment. The Dowment was pillaged by Saeculars during the Third Sack, but under Fraa Arsibalt, taken over and slowly restored by the ROF, though he opens it to members of all orders.